After more than 20 years of engineering and business leadership experience with Arup, including serving as co-chair of Australasia, I have recently taken on a role in the new APAC management executive. This involves expanding and diversifying Arup's operations in the Asia-Pacific region and partnering with clients to achieve their project goals. As I embark on this new chapter, I reflect on my journey, which began as a student at The University of Western Australia.
Attending UWA in the late 1990s was a vivid mix of learning, friendships and life experiences, and it stands out as one of the great chapters in my life. I clearly remember the days of calculus in the Weatherburn lecture theatre, long lunches on James Oval, and those bright yellow engineers club t-shirts we all wore. University for me was a time of growth and discovery, and it laid the foundation for everything that followed.
When I graduated from UWA, I was filled with a desire to see the world and make a positive difference. I joined Arup, a global consulting firm with a purpose to “shape a better world". At Arup I felt like I had found my tribe, and I have stayed with them ever since. I started my career in Perth, delivering infrastructure in remote Aboriginal communities, then moved to Melbourne and, later, to London and Ireland, where I worked as a structural engineer and design manager.
One of my favourite projects was the €2 billion (AUD $3.5 billion) Dublin Airport expansion project. Leading the design team on such a critical project, not long after my 30th birthday, was both incredibly pleasing and somewhat daunting. I learned from that experience that you don’t have to have all the answers. You’re not always going to feel 100 per cent ready to take on the opportunities in front of you but if you focus on your strengths and have courage, you will be successful.
In the early stages of my career, I may not have had as much technical experience as others, but I was able to offer different perspectives and fresh ideas which were invaluable to the teams and projects I worked on.
After a decade of working, I decided to further my education by attending Cambridge University to complete my Master’s. While my undergraduate degree from UWA was an excellent foundation for this, I did face challenges, including an initial scholarship rejection. This taught me the importance of resilience and believing in oneself. Plan A won’t necessarily work out but there’s always a plan B, a plan C, and so on. Resilience is one of the most important attributes in life.
After working around the world, I felt the pull of home and returned to Perth. Over the past 15 years, I have had three kids and continued to work at Arup. In 2021, I was incredibly proud to be appointed co-chair of Arup in Australasia. This role saw me leading over 3,000 people across Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia, all united by a purpose - to shape a better world through sustainable development. At the time I questioned whether I would have the capacity to deliver a significant change agenda, plus lay foundations for growth and diversification of the business into new markets across Southeast Asia, all with a young family. The solution that my co-chair, Kerryn Coker and I devised to tackle this was a shared leadership model. It had never been done before and, as the first women to hold a co-chair role at Arup, it required a robust proposal and business case to gain the support of our global leadership.
From my experience, the shared leadership model delivered a range of business benefits. It provided me and my co-chair increased capacity, inbuilt support, and the ability to problem-solve and make decisions faster. It enabled us to role-model radical inclusion, and encourage trust and knowledge sharing between employees, leading to improved collaboration, innovative thinking and increased job satisfaction among our people. Ultimately the experience taught me about the importance of challenging conventions and having courage in my convictions if there are broader benefits to be had.
I view life in chapters, and my career is no different. As part of our new global strategy, Arup has appointed an Asia-Pacific leadership team to help support and better position our people to meet the unprecedented demand for technical expertise and innovation, as the market doubles down on reaching its economic potential and sustainable development goals over the coming decade. Bringing all 6,400 members of our extraordinary collective in APAC together, under one leadership team, enhances our ability to share learnings, deploy skills and drive sustainable solutions at the pace and scale needed to shape a more equitable future for all. Engineers play a significant role in shaping a better future, contributing to the increasing scale of impact across this diverse region.
The Asia-Pacific region boasts a tremendous cultural diversity, but we recognise that countries of the Pacific region share many challenges, as well as opportunities. In confronting the complex and interconnected crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, and social inequality, we believe we are stronger together.
Looking back over my career, I realise this is what I love about being an engineer. The opportunity to use my technical skills and experience, to work with teams, to have a positive impact in communities, make a difference to people’s lives, and to make our planet a safer, more resilient place to live.
Climate change, social inequity, and geopolitical disruption are all creating the most complex and seemingly insurmountable challenges facing the world today but, to an engineer, a challenge represents an opportunity to apply critical thinking and find solutions.
Now more than ever, we need you, as engineers, as innovators, as problem-solvers, advisors and leaders. You have an opportunity to play your part in creating a safer, more sustainable future for our society and planet. So, remember, believe in yourself, do what you love, and have a purpose. Bring your unique talents and perspectives and find your own way to be the difference you want to see in the world.